Quality of Life In America

USNews released its ratings of the individual states along a number of “natural and social” factors this last week. While the overall ranking is important (Iowa at #1), what a lot of people are paying attention to is the “quality of life” rating.

Ranked #1 in this area is North Dakota, followed by #2 Minnesota and #3 Wisconsin. the finding makes perfect sense to me. It’s what we tell ourselves in March and April (and sometimes June) when is snows, “Sure, we’ve got winter for half the year, but it’s the quality of life we really enjoy here. Don’t ya know, ah.”

At the bottom of the list, #50 California, #49 New Jersey, #48 Indiana. More

Yeah, I keep thinking more and more about moving. And as bad as CA taxes have gotten I expect them to explode in a couple of years. Jerry Brown is downright conservative compared to whomever will end up replacing him.

Your quality of life is up to you. Location isn’t as much of a factor as many think.

The world is full of immensely more people, events, ideas, information, art, than we can conceive. No one has time to pay attention to more than a tiny fraction of it all. What you pay attention to is mostly up to you. To be sure, there are things outside of our control we must pay attention to, but fewer than you might think. Those you can deal with responsibly and then get back to the rewarding things.

For the record, as an adult I’ve lived in Virginia, Georgia, Korea, Colorado, DC, Maryland, Maryland’s Easter Shore (not to be confused with the rest of the state), North Carolina, California, and Florida. The only one of those that was more demanding as a location than I wanted was California, but that state has some major good things going for it that help make up for the craziness and cost.

Family is trying to get me to move back to CA when the Mr. finally dies. No thanks. Won’t go back to WA either, just seeing the google earth pics of what happened to my little dream the Mr. made come true for me broke my heart. I guess I will just stay on here, where he wanted to come home to, by myself. I’ll have both our ashes scattered at the old farmstead or something.

The thing about Alaska and crime stats is the fact that Alaska is the end of the road for some of the problem children we are raising. It’s where some of these people go when no one else will have them. One more thing, Alaska is a GREAT place to live, unless of course you are a wussyboy snowflake or something like that.

I live in California and while it may suck for some people living here, DH and I have it pretty good. We live in rural California, we have acreage, our house is paid for, our county is conservative and there’s no reason to pick up and move. The homeless was given a one-way ticket to LA/San Diego because their tent camps down by the river got washed away last February. We live 500+ miles from LA, and 3 hours from San Francisco, there’s not much around these parts. Some States like Nevada, Idaho, Arizona and Texas are complaining about the liberals moving to their State(s). Good riddance! Wherever you go there YOU will be. You might get a neighbor from hell!

I want to move to Mayberry R.F.D. I know it still exists somewhere in America. I always thought they’d take me, feet first, out of my life-long home in Seattle but in the past couple years I’ve begun to feel like Chance the Gardener. The look of the neighborhood hasn’t changed, but most of the neighbors have — all transplants from either CA or somewhere from the northeast. And they’ve brought all their bad habits of trying to change everything to like it was for them “back home.” All the crap from which they made their escape. I don’t think they’ll ever make the real northwest “home” for themselves.

I can’t wait to oversee the bidding war on my house in a year or two. Then it’s the Airstream life for Geoff C. and I. I’d like to travel for a while, visit friends, explore our nation’s history and then put down our final roots somewhere off the beaten track where everyone knows your name. We haven’t found the place yet. A couple of years ago I was begging him to consider N.Dakota and Anchorage — two places I KNOW are inhospitable to most CA’s. Spend summers there and winters somewhere warm, like HI.

Uncle Al — Yeah, home is where the heart is, but when state policy makers attack the middle class on all fronts life starts to suck.

joe6pak — Thanks to the Air Force I was able to spend a lot of time in AK — both summer and winter. After I got wise, I’d always try to pull TDY at the opening of salmon season on the rivers. haha! I haven’t been able to persuade Geoff yet but one of the driving trips we’re planning is the AlCan, so maybe I won’t have to strong arm him. It is definitely a lifestyle change even if you leave for warmer climes in the winter. It’s a great state to explore, but can be expensive too.

Bcattin, without looking I can picture the crowd. Another aspect of these end-of-the-roaders, which makes them more of a problem is that those guys at least have the ambition to move. Once they get someplace they start trouble.

travelling through much of the Eastern US recently (& a few trips across the Mississippi) I’ve come to notice the decay in middle America. it’s not just what was considered the ‘seedier’ parts of towns, it’s the areas that once were considered ‘middle’ … those that left the farms & embraced the early suburban life. places I grew up in, which were rich in activity; decent jobs, schools, recreation …. most now have been given over to mult-family (& non-family) drug & ‘party’ houses … even in my area of rural suburbia I see multi-generational homes slowly decaying w/ the last generation … there is no upkeep, no maintenance, no sense of value w/ the current occupants, just corruption & rot … no worry … just keep the EBT cards coming so we can exist for another month of lottery card purchases.
today, the alternative of the middle-class w/ the foresight of retirement income is the trend of ‘enclaves’ of suburbia that are completely sanitized versions of some Del Webb plastic fake-rock venier country club … complete w/ ‘Community Center’, ‘Common Area’ & exercise room … don’t forget the Golf Club w/ tennis court! … sign up for membership today!
the State incentivises, one way or another … they either want you dependent … or independent … they either rule you … or serve you …. Wake up! it’s our choice! … the State has done a fantastic job of making themselves our indespensible master
just saying the deteroriation of the Middle Class in the US has had a profound effect on those that come after
We need to act! … this includes our grandchildren …. don’t matter where you live, We are responsible
apologies for the curmudgenry

Joe6Pak — I love the place! The Last Frontier, definitely. I’ve always harbored the thought that that is where I would bug out if WA was ever overrun. I didn’t ever think we would be with all our rain, but it hasn’t stopped them. Anchorage is pretty ugly in the spring and the mosquitoes are monsters, but the people are great and so is the scenery.

We’re seriously considering departing to Prescott, or the Prescott valley out of Cali. I’m a Cali native but I no longer have the desire to fight the fight. I’m at a point where quality of life is paramount. Only one thing makes me hesitate.

I’ve always felt a kinship with Alaska. Washington shares a lot of history with that state, the gold rush, salmon fishery and canning, the big pipeline. Many of our big employment opportunities have been linked. I never went, but my siblings and many friends came back at the end of summer with their pockets bulging from their hard slog fishing, canning or mending nets for the fleet.

Doc says MRI is next week and we’ll have to see how much dirt the past 12 weeks of treatment has cleaned up. Outside of the initial monster in the neck it was four small nodules of less than about 1cm in various places. In parallel, she’s looking at if I’m genetically a match for the New immunology treatments.

Deplorable B — That is so generous of you and we’ll be taking you right up on that offer! Geoff has been strongly pushing for Utah as our final resting place. (He’s reading this over my shoulder) and asks, generally, which part of the state would you recommend we focus on for a move? And which quadrant do you live in? You can get my email address from BFH or I’ll ask him for yours, alright?

Brad, ok I’ll bite. Why hesitate? My guess is leaving family and a lifetime friends. That’s what pisses me off so much, policy makers that have never met a fucking payroll are making decisions that tear apart the backbone of communities. BASTARDS!!

Well, we’re surrounded by Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky. Too many imports have brought us down.

I live in the 2nd city – Fort Wayne – and EVERYWHERE I see license plates from those “other” states. I yell at them to spend all their money then get the he** OUT!!!! AND DON’T COME BACK!!! EVEN IF YOU HAVE MORE MONEY!!!!!!!!